T-Mobile has dropped their main sponsorship from their Bob Stapleton run cycling team. The news comes after Adidas dropped sponsorship of the team in light of the ongoing-neverending doping stories surrounding the team. The team will not disband as T-Mobile’s contract was set to go until December 2010 and there must be a decent enough exit payment that will allow Stapleton and Co to continue for at least 2008. The team will now be called appropriately enough Team High Road. The good news for George Hincapie is he won’t have to wear Magenta in South Carolina. Riding with feminine like colors in the South is not good. Then he would get into more trouble when the UCI would say he was a “man in black” for training without his team colors. Perhaps that is why George was pissed at Levi for winning the US Pro Championship. Levi and others probably knew that George was going to go to T-Mob next year and the specter of wearing pink in the South must have been a real FU to George when Levi took the win.
With Team High Road and Team Slipstream in the Pro Peloton could this be the dawn of sponsorless team names? I hope so. It would actually be better for a team’s long term survival since they would not necessarily be attached to a specific sponsor. Team could weather the storm of a major sponsor loss since they would not necessarily be associated with a specific product. Products would then be associated with the team making it easier to switch around.
Anyway, thanks for the years of cycling T-Mobile. It is unfortunate that just as the team was clean T-Mobile decided to leave the sport. It is perhaps premature and hasty. T-Mobile could have stayed on with a cleaner image instead of leaving under a cloud of doping related stories.
AP Photo/Daniel Maurer
T-Mobile decided to stay in the sport of cycling and keep sponsoring its top German team. The decision was made after several high profile admissions to past doping by 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis, Ralf Aldag and house sprinter Erik Zabel. After these revelations came the bombshell of Patrik Sinkewitz’s non-negative for elevated Testosterone levels. Sinkewitz admitted to using to making a boneheaded move of self administering a testosterone gel without realizing it would trip cause some doping issues.
“We want to prove a point through consistency and reliability which this sport is in great need of,” said Hamid Akhavan, chairman of T-Mobile International and board member of Deutsche Telekom AG. “We want to continue to accompany cycling and support it in its effort to become a cleaner sport.”
“After intensive internal talks, but also after contacting important representatives from politics, media and sport, we decided to face the challenges and not to give in to the current problems. We know that the chosen route would be difficult,” Akhavan said in a company statement.
The T-Mobile management has the right to end sponsorship if more doping cases popup. After the Sinkewitz fiasco it was thought that T-Mobile just might pull out of cycling altogether. This would have been troubling especially since the team have committed to an extensive internal anti doping testing system.
Hopefully all future T-Mobile racers will be extra careful with the gels, lotions and rubs they administer so as to not trip up a positive/non-negative doping result. If any T-Mobile racer dopes after this close call then they should probably take an IQ test because it would surely be a boneheaded move.
Yahoo ! News
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Just when German cycling looked to be cooked along comes a new sensation to light up the sport for the Bavarians. With Jorge Jascke hogging German TV, talking about how he made his small fortune by doping while lots of great actions goes by unnoticed. The German government wants to remove funding for the World Championship in Stuttgart. All of the German’s want to kick cycling while it is down except of course the fans. German TV watchers complained about Jascke’s presence in the commentary box and are still tuning in, as well they should now that Linus Gerdemann had his coming out party today.
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(pic from Yahoo News)
“I am ending my active career,” Ullrich said.
He criticized the way he had been treated by cycling officials in Germany and Switzerland and by the German media.
“I feel like a serious criminal although I have nothing to reproach myself,” he said.
Ullrich said he was still fit and had received offers from seven teams to race this season, but had decided to move on.
Jan Ullrich announced his retirement today at a press conference in Hamburg, Germany. Ullrich will now take on a new job as Media Consultant/Advisor for the Volksbank team.
Ullrich’s retirement comes despite having numerous opportunities to get back to racing this year.
“I could ride again immediately, I could get a license, I am fit, as fit as last year and could immediately have a team. I have seven offers, including ProTour teams.” –cyclingnews.com
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Looks like Alejandro Valverde will not be donning a magenta jersey after all. Now for my Stephan Colbert moment: Just as I predicted earlier, the Valverde move to T-Mobile was not going to happen. Team manager Eusebio Unzué was able to press the sponsors to extend deals or put in more money. There was enough to give the Green Bullet a solid home for the next four years at more than 9 million dollars (according to cyclingnews.com). That is very close to the rumored T-Mobile deal.
Details of the deal have to be finalized but the Caisse D’Epargne team presentation next week will definitely feature Valverde.
The on-again off again, confirmed but not confirmed move to T-Mobile is not a dead deal yet. The story keeps being denied, but then fresh reports come back to show that there just may be a link between Alejandro Valverde moving to T-Mobile for a price of $10 million Euros for the next three years. This would make the Green Bullet the highest paid professional cyclist in the Pro Peloton.
Caisse D’Epargne-Illes Balears has been reported to be in a tight situation regarding sponsorship cash. A nice $2 Million Euro buyout may help keep the team afloat. T-Mobile needs a guaranteed rising star since they put all their effort behind Michael Rogers who may or may not pan out as a stage racer.
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(pic from Flickr user das jan)
The T-Mobile overhaul continued this week with Mattais Kessler and Andreas Kloden joining old buddies Walter Goodefroot and Alexandre Vinokourov at Astana. It seems like a mini T-Mobile reunion at the Kazak based team.
Kloden’s move to Astana must mean that he does not have many hopes for a high overall placing at the Tour since the team is pretty much Vinokourov’s. Kloden is used to playing support, but has shown flashes of brilliance this year and in 2004. If Vinokourov truly thought that this year was his last chance at an overall win, then getting Kloden on the team gives Astana a strong option in case Vino is genuinely done with the chase for the Yellow Jersey.
Andreas Kloden blasted Olaf Luwig for poor team management during the Tour de France. T-Mobile has never been know team tactics a point which was highlighted last year when Kloden and Ullrich reeled in an attacking Vinokourov. This year the blunders continued as T-Mobile seemed to have one of the strongest teams but would still execute the occasional blunder of chasing down a teammate. Overall T-Mobile probably executed better than in the in the past, but Kloden blames T-Mobile and Phonak for allowing Oscar Periero so much time, a move which could eventually give him the overall Tour title over Kloden if/when Landis is stripped of his title.
Kloden and Kessler’s move may not have been too much of a surprise to T-Mobile management since they did not reward the team’s performance in the Tour with better contracts. Some riders were even offered paycuts according to Kloden.
T-Mobiles shakeup must be long overdue since the team was notoriously known for paying huge contracts but not getting many results. Ironically this is all happening after a better than usual team performance at the Tour de France.
(pic from Eurosport)
Jan Ullrich was shown no love by T-Mobile management. After lying about his relationship with Dr. Fuentes and the cloud surrounding Operation Puerto, T-Mobile have given the boot to Der Kaiser. Jan Ullrich is now out of a job and he is PO’d about the way in which T-Mobile informed him of the news.
“I am very disappointed about the fact the decision was not communicated to me personally but by T-Mobile’s lawyers in a fax,” Ullrich was quoted as saying. “The dismissal by T-Mobile is not acceptable for me.”
“I think it’s a shame that I have given so many years of good service and for all that I have done for the team, that I be seen as just a fax number.”
Welcome to the corporate world Jan, sometimes unpleasent news is delivered unpleasently.
Velonews
Eurosport
(pic from Yahoo!)
Floyd Landis did not dominate the first Time Trial of the Tour de France, but he performed better than any other GC contender which puts him in a great spot. Second place would probably have other guys stomping their fists on the handlebars, but Gonchar was far and above all of the competition with a blazingly fast Time Trail. Floyd seemed happy to get second, even though he describes thevent as an ass kicking. Floyd is in a very good spot despit having one T-Mobile guy ahead of him and three others breathing down his neck. It is a German fest in the top ten with Kloden, Sinkewitz and Gerolsteiner’s Markus Fothen all trying to make up for Germany’s loss in the World Cup. Michael Rogers is sitting only eight second behind Landis.
Being in second place with a tough-to-control second week is probably the best spot for Landis. T-Mobile will have to work for Gonchar since they would like to keep the Yellow Jersey and the standing may not shake up that much for a few days. Meanwhile Floyd’s Phonack team can keep supporting Floyd making sure he is in the right spots at all times, while T-Mobile has the burden of the Yellow for a few days.
Change in the Praying Landis position.
Incidentally, Landis’ TT position had to go through a last minute change. If you notice the TT bars are tilted down and Floyd’s hands are not in front of his face as they were during the prologue TT. Seems that the UCI had a last minute change of heart about the position and decided that Floyd needed to move his arms down a bit. Landis took the situation in stride, as you cannot do anything else really other than be DQd.
Bjarne Riis feels very confident in Ivan Basso and is riding a wave of success in the Classics. With all this good fortune despite a beat up team, the former Tour de France winner decided to throw some smack Ullrich way after seeing his poor form up close an personal in Tuscany.
“It’s clear that he doesn’t like riding his bike, and for that reason I don’t understand why he wants to be a cyclist, it’s a waste of his talent,” Riis stated. “He needs to wise up right away. My belief in him is dwindling.”
Some very harsh words from the former mentor of Der Kaiser. Could this be frank talk from a former mentor? or a psychological mind game? Probably a little of both. With Ullrich’s constantly delayed season start and recent knee troubles, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Ullrich is very bad form so far this year.
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